July 22nd

Random thoughts:
-at a street tailor shop, I see a little boy trying to imitate by himself his father and cutting through some fabric. On the other side of the small table, three little girls are leaning over the table watching in awe the boy. Very cute. I wish I could have taken a shot of this moment.

-every time I pass by a neighborhood taken over by Chinese people outside of China, it makes me think of what modern smart discreet colonization is all about. You want to take over countries, why waste energy, people and money on wars and violence just so that the land or the country has your name on it?! Do it like the Chinese, from the inside.

-when in Africa, do not go to public clinics or hospitals or sometimes even doctors, chances are you will be worse off after seeing them. Self medicate. I am dead serious!

-apparently Mali mean hippopotamus originally.

-anyone knows the biological purpose of the existence of mosquitos on the planet and in the food chain?????

-malaria prevention campaigns in west Africa are a dramatic failure and total waste of money. People still believe that all they need is a mosquito net when they sleep. Ridiculous!!! Mosquito sprays or lotions should and must be applied on the body as soon as the sun is down, without exception. And the worst part is that all these countries have all the natural resources requires to produce such medicine wildly available all over in nature, but two very concerning problems have happened: #1 it seems that all these NGO campaigns and governmental campaigns have been useless in communicating the necessity to use such medicine in addition to the use of mosquito net, and #2 I suspect that not a single NGO or government initiative has done a thing to train the local populations on how to locally manufacture the medicine. What a shame! And I thought that Bill Gates was serious about his devotion to the third world...

Aside from that, today was a great day.

Well, I finally managed to be out of the mission before 9:30am. Good sign! I am definitely recovering. But last night was still not a good night.

I walked all the way to the national museum. Or so they call it. What a shame! How dare they even call it that way?! National? The place does not have a single exhibition about the history of Mali. Museum? The place only had two small rooms displaying a few masks and wooden statues as well as several pieces of fabrics with barely any light. And yet, according to some guide book (Le Petit Fute, which in Mali is the #1) it is the second biggest museum in Africa and one of the best. I was so upset because they charged me full fare, $5 when half of what the brochure is promoting is down. I went to all the admin departments to complain, and even to the vice director of the museum (the director was out) but no one was able to do anything. I even made the vice director tell me word for word that when the director is not here he has no power at all. Uffff....Africa. I suppose things like that are bound to happen from time to time. Bunch of people with a high title and just doing nothing all day. After all, the French administration is full of such people. Lol

So after a while of waiting and seeing that a storm was rising, before it started pouring rain, I walked fast to the artisan market where Dogon was working to hang out with him a bit. This place is so interesting! So many artisans working on so many interesting pieces all over. It is like a big messy entertainment park for antique collectors, music lovers, art lovers, and souvenir hunters. Or, once you pass the shyness level, it can be a heaven for photos...next time hopefully.

After a lunch of street food eaten at Dogon's work, one of Astou's cousin, Serre, who lives in Washington, but who is from Bamako and is here now on vacation, called me to meet up at her dad's hotel. So I went.

Ufff! It was good to see a familiar face and have a normal conversation. And well, Astou had told her to take good care of me. Lol so she wanted to male sure I ate as much as possible to gain weight back. Hahaha! So I did. I asked for the heaviest dishes. The hotel is located in such a gorgeous spot of the city, right on the edge of the river, over looking all the fisherman's pirogues, and far far away from a y kind of street noise or pollution. What a perfect place tom rest and take a break. Serre asked me if I wanted to stay there instead of the mission, but I declined...by politeness first but also because the hotel is far away from everything. Of course it would be fantastic for a night or two...hmmm...maybe, when I come back to Bamako and right before I go back to Dakar. We will see...

Very early this morning the nun from Kalana let me know that it would be better of I came down there in a couple of weeks instead of now. Perfect. Dogon himself is going to his village in Sanga, the Pays Dogon, Thursday or Friday to be there for the end of Ramadan, la fete as they call it. So I will tag along. It is supposed to be a LONG ride. So better with someone that alone.

The world is small, and there is no such thing as a coincidence.
I just met the priest from the mission of the Colombian nun I had met the other day. He is flying to Spain tomorrow for a month of vacation. (Obviously I raved about the Camino so he would check it out). He just told me that in his mission, there is also a Colombian nun who only speaks Spanish and who is managing an orphanage with a lot of difficulty and could most definitely use some help. Ha! Voila! So I will connect with her and go there when I am back from the Pays Dogon, where Patrick, who I used to work with in Washington, connected me with a local consultant who is connecting me with two solid NGOs there who might need help as well. Funny, how it took 6 days, but now I have enough options to keep busy. :-)

I guess I was just supposed to stay a few more days in Bamako not just to recover but also to meet up with Serre, connect with the consultant, and meet tonight's priest.